Home » Botswana » Jul 22, 2004 Xugana Lodge, Okavango Delta, Botswana

Imagine an isolated island on a wide and vast delta waterway, surrounded by a gentle lagoon fed by narrow channels lined with papyrus and tall reeds. Imagine gently waking to nature’s alarm clock as, one by one, the birds greet the growing steel-gray of dawn with a fugue of disparate song melding into a beautiful symphony of the awakening earth. Imagine quiet afternoons, the sun dappled through the trees offering a play of shadow and light, rolling dreamily in the light breeze over the fern covered loam; the lagoon rippling in rhythm with the moving shadow. Imagine that same lagoon reflecting the burnt orange fire of the evening sun dropping to the horizon, the sky ablaze with color. <br />

Jul 22, 2004 Xugana Lodge, Okavango Delta, Botswana

Tom Schueneman
2006-03-27 15:38:52

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Imagine an isolated island on a wide and vast delta waterway, surrounded by a gentle lagoon fed by narrow channels lined with papyrus and tall reeds. Imagine gently waking to nature’s alarm clock as, one by one, the birds greet the growing steel-gray of dawn with a fugue of disparate song melding into a beautiful symphony of the awakening earth. Imagine quiet afternoons, the sun dappled through the trees offering a play of shadow and light, rolling dreamily in the light breeze over the fern covered loam; the lagoon rippling in rhythm with the moving shadow. Imagine that same lagoon reflecting the burnt orange fire of the evening sun dropping to the horizon, the sky ablaze with color.

Imagine not having to imagine.

I am compelled toward contemplation as I begin a new entry in this travel journal. In human terms, Africa is a continent with more than its fair share of poverty, strife, bloodshed, and tribal warfare (well, one could make that case that all warfare is tribal, but that discussion is far beyond the scope of this writing – a fruitless digression to our otherwise placid scene.)

I am intrigued by the likes of Robert Young Pelton, author of several books, one of which is The Adventurist – My Life in Dangerous Places. His style of “warfare tourism/journalism” is interesting and even important – at least it offers an independent view of areas and situations that we in America are generally given only spoon-fed glimpses of. When Robert Pelton visits Africa, we read about the genocide, the human tragedy, the hopelessness, and the hunger – both physical and spiritual – of Africa.

This is not the only picture of Africa that is worthy of investigation. Okay, so I’m no “adventurist” in the style of Pelton. I am just a tourist out on a wildlife safari, but I am happy to offer a contrasting view nonetheless. If only I could figure out a way to take home with me and communicate the feeling of Africa I have ...